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When Dwight Damon left Pullman in 1962 with his WSU diploma he took a couple other things with him as well: the ability to get by on very little sleep, an appreciation for hard work in the pursuit of excellence, and an academic foundation second to none.
Internationally recognized for developing an innovative system of braces that is changing orthodontia practice around the world, Damon will return to the Pullman campus Friday to receive the WSU Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. His lecture, titled “Creating Innovation through the Pursuit of Excellence,” is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in the CUB Auditorium.
Damon, who has maintained an active orthodontics practice in Spokane for more than 30 years, created the “Damon Bracket,” a passive self-ligating dental brace system that allows low-friction, low-force treatment in aligning teeth more comfortably and in less time than dental brace systems previously available. Developing and testing novel treatment methods while simultaneously running a growing practice would seem like a difficult proposition, but Damon said he’s always been busy.
“I just didn’t sleep much,” Damon said, “I learned to do that down at WSU.”
Damon came to WSU from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane on a basketball scholarship and ended up playing baseball as well.
“At that time, if you were on an athletic scholarship you also had to work two hours a day,” he said. Damon’s job was sweeping the gymnastics area of Bohler Gym, a job he remembers taking one hour and 53 minutes to finish. “It was fun” he said, but it also meant that he didn’t even start his studies until 8:30 or 9 o’clock.
Still, he excelled as a zoology major. A student of WSU professor Herbert Eastlick, Damon said that experience had a profound effect on him. In fact, he said, what he learned from Eastlicka dissatisfaction with the status quo and a passion for excellence–is some of what he plans to talk about in his Friday address.
“Dr. Eastlick exemplified that,” Damon said. “What a tremendous influence he was on all of us. He gave us a tremendous background and foundation from which to pursue our careers.”
Damon said he considered both medical school and dental school, but in the end he chose dentistry, graduating first in his class at the University of Washington. Then, after a serving a tour of duty in Vietnam, he returned to UW to specialize in orthodontics.
“I love kids,” he said. “I really love working with kids. Orthodontics was a way you could make a massive difference in someone’s life and really get to know” that person.
Along with his love of children, though, is an abiding interest in research. “I have always had that bent,” he said, “to know the why.” Even while he was in dental school he did research during the summers, he said. Then, with a practice of his own, his research continued.
“I tried not to just do something because I was trained to do it that way,” he said. He was always observing the effects of his treatments, trying to come up with ways to do things more effectively and more efficiently.
“You have to have a passion and a drive to keep trying to get better and not be satisfied with the status quo,” he said.
Another trait, a desire to make a difference in people’s lives, seems to be a family trait. Damon said two of his brothers are orthodontists and the three of them have three offsprings who also became orthodontists. “I don’t think there is another family tree in the world that has six orthodontists in two generations,” he said.
